There is a lot of speculation about where the feedstocks are going to come from over the next five to ten years, given all the additional capacity coming online for renewable diesel.

US renewable diesel/co-processing capacity is expected to climb 600% from 2019 to 2025.  At nearly four billion gallons of capacity, which doesn’t include the estimated 2.5 billion gallons of domestic biodiesel capacity, or the imports received in both categories, there will huge draws on feedstocks.

The Jacobsen keeps tabs on renewable diesel projects, but with the flurry of activity taking place and speed of recent announcements, there are always some projects that seem to fall through the cracks.  One such project was Emerald Biofuels and their efforts to build a renewable diesel plant. This project has been in the works for so long that it had seemed like it might be mothballed. However, out of the ashes it has seemed to revive.

Back in April there was an announcement that they were going to move forward with a $315 million plan to construct a facility in Port Arthur, TX.  It would occupy eight acres and employ 50-full time employees.  Their website calls the project Emerald One and it is going to be designed as a commercial scale refinery producing approximately 110 million gallons per year of renewable diesel. Their fuel will be military-grade, made from organic sources, like vegetable oil or animal fat.

The Houston Business Journal gives additional indication that the project may be advancing. It was announced today that Emerald will receive $15 million in Texas tax incentives to move their project forward.